Research Update Newsletter
From The University of Chicago Office of the Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories
July 6, 2006
This Month in Research Update:
- Competition Update
- Oral presentation completed; University awaits DOE decision
- Office of the Vice President for Research & Argonne National Laboratory (OVPRANL) News
- University technology licensee Arryx, Inc. acquired by Haemonetics in $26 million transaction
- New members join Argonne’s Board of Governors
- Events
- University of Chicago to honor 10 employees and 4 children of Argonne employees
- University July Event Highlights
- Research in the News
- Climate scientists spotlight Arctic warming, plight of polar bears; Public comment period on threatened species listing ends today
- Agreement provides for preservation of historic Yerkes Observatory
- Proceeds from sale of 45 adjoining acres to support research, Yerkes outreach program
- Galaxy evolution in cyber universe matches astronomical observations in fine detail
- When galaxies collide: supercomputers reproduce fluid motions of cosmic duet; Simulations forecast favorable conditions for verifying Einstein predictions
Competition Update
Oral presentation completed; University awaits DOE decision
On June 21, The University of Chicago and its team of Argonne key personnel, in conjunction with industrial partners Jacobs Engineering and BWXT, completed Oral Presentations to the U.S. Department of Energy. This was the final requirement in the competition for the management and operation of Argonne National Laboratory. A decision is expected within the next few months. The University’s contract with the DOE for the management and operation of Argonne expires September 30, 2006.
OVPRANL News
University technology licensee Arryx, Inc. acquired by Haemonetics in $26 million transaction
Last month, Arryx, Inc., a start-up company based on breakthrough technology licensed from the University, was acquired for $26 million by Haemonetics, a global company engaged in the design, manufacture and worldwide marketing of automated blood processing systems.
Launched in 2000, Arryx held an exclusive license to technology developed by University of Chicago physicists for holographic optical tweezers that are used to handle cells and other microscopic objects in a laboratory environment. The tweezers, trademarked as Arryx’s BioRyx 200® system, utilize lasers to grab and move up to 200 microscopic objects at one time. The lasers act as "tractor beams", pinning particles in place and moving them as the beams move. This technology represents a versatile tool for nanotechnology, enabling ground-breaking research and development in medicine and healthcare, as well as advances in optical communications and optical information processing.
“We are delighted by this development,” said Alan Thomas, Director, Office of Technology and Intellectual Property, The University of Chicago (UChicagoTech), whose organization along with predecessor organization, ARCH Development Corp., brokered the initial licensing deal. “Arryx’s technology is innovative and we’re happy that it has found a good home.”
The BioRyx system will complement Haemonetics product offerings particularly in the area of blood-separation. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of calendar year 2006. Arryx's personnel and operations will remain in Chicago.
New members join The University of Chicago's Board of Governors for Argonne
The University of Chicago has announced that two new members have been elected to University's Board of Governors for the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. The new members are Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President of the Council on Competitiveness, and Mary Fanett Wheeler, Professor, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Petroleum and Geosystems at the University of Texas at Austin.
Events
University of Chicago to honor 10 employees and 4 children of Argonne employees
The University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne will honor 10 Argonne employees and four children of Argonne employees with awards at the 2006 University of Chicago Board of Governors Awards Program on Thursday, July 13. The Program will begin at 2:00 p.m. in the Building 213 Cafeteria. A reception will follow. All Argonne and U.S. Department of Energy employees whose schedules permit are invited to attend.
University July Event Highlights
- Smart Museum of Art: Mark Turbyfill: Works on Paper, Saturday, June 17 - Sunday, Sept. 10, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave., http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu, (773) 702-0200.
Although remembered today mainly for his contributions to the worlds of avant-garde verse (in 1926 the vanguard magazine Poetry devoted an entire issue to his writings) and dance (in the 1920s and ’30s, he was a principal dancer with Allied Artists and partnered with legendary Chicago choreographer Ruth Page), Mark Turbyfill was also an accomplished visual artist. Seeing continuity in all his creative endeavors, Turbyfill at times utilized texts lifted from his own poetry in both figurative and abstract paintings and drawings. With titles such as Yellow Calligraphic Poem, Green Oracle, and Sibylline Head, his visual work also suggests a mythic literary past. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.
- The Rockefeller Memorial Chapel: Carillonathon!, 6 p.m Sundays June 18 - August 20, 1156 E. 59th St. (773) 702-7059, Department of Visual Arts, The Space Between, Thursday, June 8 - Sunday, June 18, Del Prado Building, 5307 S. Hyde Park Blvd.
Bring a picnic and enjoy music from heaven on the lawn of the Chapel. This family-friendly series of free carillon concerts features Wylie Crawford, University Carillonneur, with guest artists from across America and Europe.
- Department of Visual Arts: The Space Between, Thursday, June 8 - Sunday, June 18, Del Prado Building, 5307 S. Hyde Park Blvd.
Tiny models of cities that exist only in dreams, a town crier who reports the news by memory and sculptures that document the sense of division a Mexican-born artist feels living in America; the graduating M.F.A. students in the Department of Visual Art use their own artistic language to comment on their lives and the world around them.
- Chicago Public Library: John Hope Franklin, 2 - 4 p.m. Sunday, June 25, Woodson Regional Library, 9525 S. Halsted St. (312) 745-2080
John Hope Franklin, the John M. Manly Professor Emeritus in History at Chicago and the James B. Duke professor emeritus in history at Duke University, will discuss and sign copies of his latest book Mirror to America — The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. Franklin’s autobiography chronicles not only his own life, but our nation’s racial transformation over the past century.
For more information about the events listed above, click here.
Research in the News
Climate scientists spotlight Arctic warming, plight of polar bears; Public comment period on threatened species listing ends today
A climate scientist at The University of Chicago and 30 of her colleagues from across North America and Europe are urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species because global warming is melting its sea-ice habitat. Full story.
Agreement provides for preservation of historic Yerkes Observatory
Proceeds from sale of 45 adjoining acres to support research, Yerkes outreach program
The University of Chicago has reached an agreement to permit Mirbeau Company owner Gary Dower to develop 45 acres of land near the 109-year-old Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, in an arrangement that will preserve the observatory and its telescopes as an education center for astronomy. Mirbeau will donate the observatory to the village of Williams Bay, which in turn will enter into a long-term lease with a not-for-profit entity that will operate the observatory. Full story.
Galaxy evolution in cyber universe matches astronomical observations in fine detail
Scientists at The University of Chicago have bolstered the case for a popular scenario of the big bang theory that neatly explains the arrangement of galaxies throughout the universe. Their supercomputer simulation shows how dark matter, an invisible material of unknown composition, herded luminous matter in the universe from its initial smooth state into the cosmic web of galaxies and galaxy clusters that populate the universe. Full story.
When galaxies collide: supercomputers reproduce fluid motions of cosmic duet; Simulations forecast favorable conditions for verifying Einstein predictions
A wispy collection of atoms and molecules fuels the vast cosmic maelstroms produced by colliding galaxies and merging supermassive black holes, according to some of the most advanced supercomputer simulations ever conducted on this topic. Full story.
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